Referees named for Lions rugby tour

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New Zealand’s Chris Pollock, South African Craig Joubert and France’s Romain Poite will referee the three Test matches between Australia and the touring British and Irish Lions, the International Rugby Board says.

“Appointments were made by the IRB Match Official Selection Committee following a comprehensive review of performances during the recent RBS 6 Nations and other fixtures,” world rugby’s governing body said on Tuesday.

Pollock will take charge of the first Test in Brisbane on June 22, with Joubert refereeing the second Test in Melbourne on June 29 and Poite the final Test in Sydney on July 6.

Other referees who will take charge of matches during the tour include New Zealand-born Australian Steve Walsh, who has been appointed to the tour opener between the Lions and the Barbarians in Hong Kong, Glen Jackson (NZRU), Jaco Peyper (SARU) and Jerome Garces (FFR).

The Crowd Says (44) | Page 1 of Comments

All pretty good refs. So long as there is no Kraplan or Bryce Lawrence (both might be retired?) I’m happy.
Don’t under estimate the importance – refs interpretation of the scrum and breakdown may well decide the series.

“So long as there is no Kraplan or Bryce Lawrence (both might be retired?) I’m happy.”

Nup, Jonathan was a touchie in Saturday’s Stormers/Brumbies clash, so will definitely return with the whistle, but Bryce is no more, apparently thanks to JON. Bryce, very nice fella that he was, had difficulty setting scrums. “Touch, pause, er, engage – nah, nah, let’s have that again fellas” for the umpteenth time. Meanwhile you could have three cups of tea…

BB,you aren’t one of those saffas who thinks Lawrence cost you that game,are you? The boks lost because of their own stupidity.They had enough front-foot ball to win two games.It was the lack of finishing by your backs that cost you the game,not Lawrence’s reffing.

Still,the fact Lawrence let Dwyer and Horan’s criticism of his performance in the Ireland game affect him,where he reffed well,is enough for this punter to see the end of him.He showed he is weak-minded in taking notice of the criticism.Will be interesting to see how Steve Walsh reacts to the serving he is currently getting from the brit press after the 6N decider.My guess is he won’t be losing any sleep over it.

Fairly pathetic behaviour from the pommy coaches afterwards- leaked to sympathetic media they were making a complaint against Walsh after coping a thrashing, compounded by gutless underhand stunts. A good example of the lack of moral fibre in the modern Englishman.

Richard, never a good idea to start off a debate with calling us stupid.

But the answer is yes and no.

There were a number of reasons we lost that match.

Frans Steyn was the catalyst in our attack during the world cup, and him being injured against Samoa meant we went into the QF without him.

This meant Jean de Villiers played at 12 and during the game produced two forward passes in the final moves before we went over which would have been 2 scores were it not for the forward pass.

Danie Rossouw when he pulled down (I think it was Horwill) in the line out late in the game which gave australia thie lead.

Pieter de Villiers who was not astute enough to change tactics.

The hit on Brussow in the 24th minute of the game which ended his match.

And then Bryce Lwarence who did not penalise the Wallabies once in their red zone during the whole match, where they slent a lot lf time on defence, which by his own admission, Bryce Lawarence admitted he froze on the big stage after the rantings of John O’Neill after the Wallabies’ loss to Ireland.

“And then Bryce Lwarence who did not penalise the Wallabies once in their red zone during the whole match, where they slent a lot lf time on defence, which by his own admission, Bryce Lawarence admitted he froze on the big stage after the rantings of John O’Neill after the Wallabies’ loss to Ireland.”

Gamesmanship, on O’Neill’s part, clearly. We lost because Ireland played stronger/better, we were ordinary and it’s really why some us began calling for Dingo’s head.

You think your team is the only one to suffer at the hands of refereeing decisions.NZ had it happen at a number of WC’s,and we too could be aggrieved by that (1999 comes to mind).In that game,the AB’s went to the ref to complain,and were brushed off, just as you were in 2011.And,yes,the AB’s should have been pro-active and dealt with the problem on the field i.e French thuggery.They didn’t and the rest is history.Also,the French tried the same rubbish v the WB’s in the final and Eales threatened to take his team off the field if something wasn’t done about it.By putting the onus on the ref to police the French,Eales had taken away the only weapon they had,and without the thuggery they were flogged.It’s called being pro-active.

World Cups are won by brain power and experience,and that includes being able to read the referee as much as the opposition.The “stupid” comment I will take back if it offends you so much,let’s say ‘tactically naive” and leave it at that.

BB- in agreement with you about teams getting snotted by bad reffing decisions.Unfortunately,you have a game with a multitude of laws that are open to interpretations by refs.And as a consequence you have a game that is more often than not decided on a refs whim.I honestly can’t think of another game with this problem,and until they get some uniformity in the rules in both hemispheres,little is going to change.

I actually agree with the basic gist of your argument,we’re just approaching it from a different angle.

Craig Joubert for the 2nd test, hmm Joubert always bobs up in the crucial tests often, and also for whatever reason these tests, also for the game of rugby there is a lot of revenue on the line.

For example the rugby world cup final, a NZ victory was crucial for revenue of the NZ AB’S cementing themselves as a brand even more globally by winning a home world cup.

Joubert also refereed the England VS France match this year at twickenham, bearing in mind an England win would set up a blockbuster, for a 6 nations decider England VS Wales.

Joubert also refereed the match in Rosario when world cup seedings were on the line, and it was better for revenue if Australia is seeded higher at the world cup than Argentina, as the wallabies are at this stage still a bigger brand at least in the UK, so big revenue having a stronger Australia.

Now Joubert has been appointed by the IRB for the Lion’s series, game 2. Bearing in mind if the 2nd match is won by the team who lost the 1st game, the series will be locked at 1-1 all, and a big money spinner huge blockbuster 3rd test in Sydney will be played with massive revenue and TV ratings, as opposed to a dead rubber 3rd test.

Hmm some conspiracy theorist will think this and that, but i just noticed that, for big games int he last 2 years, when huge revenue and interest in the sport is at stake, often Craig Joubert has been appointed the ref.

And not once in any of the 3 games mentioned did the losing side ever hit the lead.

Johnno, Mark Lawrence was a very good ref, but was pushed into early retirement also (i’m not defending Bryce – he could be pretty ordinary, but at times was reasonable).

“New Zealand’s Chris Pollock, South African Craig Joubert and France’s Romain Poite will referee the three Test matches between Australia and the touring British and Irish Lions, the International Rugby Board says.”

Mark Lawrence, I liked him as a ref too, but – Ireland v Argentina late 2009 killed his career. A performance so poor he was dropped from all/any involvement at all in the 2010 6N tournament. Effectively ruined his chances of any RWC involvement too – he became non-grata, as did Marius Jonker for his efforts Ireland v NZ late 2009, also dropped from all 6N rugby.

Quote from The Independent: IRB deserve praise for punishing sub-standard refereeing
“Lawrence’s performance which included some completely wrong calls, astonished certain senior officials. At times he seemed only to be refereeing one team, Argentina, and his mistakes clearly cost them several points on the score board.
He failed to award a clear penalty try to Argentina, bizarrely rewarding Ireland for twisting the retreating scrum with a penalty to them. It was one of the craziest decisions you will ever see on an international field. He then gave Ireland another penalty when an Irish hand clearly shoved the ball back on the ground.
And another penalty which erroneously went to Ireland led to a converted try by Stephen Ferris. “

Joubert is a home town ref of the worst sorts. So if the Australians get dusted in game one the media should find any excuse to put a huge amount of pressure on him. If they win they should do it anyway so the Wallabies get all the marginal calls.

Poite is rubbish but I’m just glad none of the Irish Refs are eligible.

To be fair, am so biased and anti Joubert these days, i.e post 2011 rwc final, that Every decision he makes is suspicious to me! Tuilagi’s try during this game was also controversial, but I guess it’s tough to see everything for a ref…dunno really.

Just hope refereeing doesn’t ruin e series ahead and that all three refs in charge will be consistent in all matches. Nothing more frustrating to get penalised with one ref and get away with the same infringement the next week. They have plenty of time to all be on the same page.

across the Tasman – a reunion of sorts with Wayne Barnes. the All Blacks and France in June; quite an event – at Eden Park a replay of RWC final albeit with mostly different players – even minus McCaw who’ll still be holidaying.
Barnes has refereed in NZ numerous times since ‘that’ NZ-Fra match 2007 without any bother, but this is the first time he’s reffed NZ-Fra again.